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Diabetes Worry

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frosty

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Hi There,

I am new to this site and i was wondering if anybody could help me out.

I had previous Gestational Diabetes with both of my pregnancies, however with my second pregnancy I had a glucose tolerance test at 28 weeks which was normal 6.4 after 2 hours i think. As my sugars were going to about 8.2ish after lunch my diabetes midwife told me to ignore the GTT as the meter readings were showing i was gestational diabetic, she said you can get different results from the GGT depending on what time of day it is performed, is this correct?

6 weeks after my son was born i had another GTT test which came up as 4.4 fasting and 5.1(this was in January). Recently i have started to feel very thirsty and needing to pee more often so i got the metre out which came up with readings of about 7.8 after 2 hours, which i thought was slightly high for me. I went to the dr who said could do another GTT, this was 4.9 fasting then 5.9. The thing that has confused me is that he also gave me an hba1c test, this came out at 5.7 which i thought was rather high for my GTT results. I think was tested at the hospital last year via finger prick for this test which they said was 5.3. i am just confused. It is really worrying me that i may be borderline diabetic but the GTT hasn't picked it up because of the time of day i was tested. My sugars were always normal in the morning so does this make a difference? Really would appriciate some of your advice? many thanks.
 
Your doctor is the only one who can diagnose diabetes.

That said, your HbA1c is just a bit higher than it should be, but your GTT seems normal.

Your other figures are normal. So you probably don't have diabetes but do need to watch your carbohydrates a bit to get your HbA1c down a touch.

Labels are difficult, even doctors struggle when it comes to what to call the "stages" of higher than normal BGs.

They might say "Impaired Glucose Tolerance" or " Insulin Resisatant" or "Pre Diabetic".

If you need a label I would have a guess at " A Teeny Weeny Bit Pre Diabetic, Better Watch the Sugar and Carbs Intake and Take More Exercise".

Oh! and "Lose a Bit of Weight"

H
 
Hi There, thanks for the reply, i am already 7.5 stone and 5.2 in height so i don't think i need to lose weight. I don't understand the results really. Would eating too mant carbs keep your sugars higher than if you did the GTT?

Also my dad died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57, as there is no diabetes in my family and i am not overweight i am confused as to why i would be pre-diabetic. i really worried that there could be a link to if i was possibly pre-diabtic to my dads cancer. I might sound mad but it is really worrying me!
 
Frosty
it is actually quite common for women who have had gestational diabetes to develop the condition eventually. It happened to my cousin and Iknow of many others
Go and get checked out. If you have it,you need to know so you can control it. If you don't, you need to stop worrying. Reducing your carbs won't hurt you. So try it if you like the idea.
Hana
 
Are the hca1c tests 100% accurate? it seems strange that my GTT was 4.9 - 5.9 and my hba1c was 5.7? my finger prick one last year when i was pregnant was 5.3. Confused.
 
You are supposed to fast before the GTT so that shouldn't be affected by anything you've eaten.
They can use the HbA1c to diagnose diabetes : 6.5% is the cut off level with between 6 and 6.4% 'high risk' of diabetes so at 5.7% you are below that. There's a lot of info on how the test can be used here: http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Our ... diabetes_/
Note it says that fingerprick HbA1cs shouldn't normally be used for diagnosis.r
An HbA1c of 5.7% is an average of about 6.5mmol/l that includes the peaks though so would be higher than the levels that you got on fasting and at the end of the GTT.

I'm sure you know having gestational puts you at a greater risk of diabetes
( Contrary to some articles the risk is for both types of D : in one study half of the women that developed diabetes after gestational D developed T2 and half T1 )
but to put that in perspective according to this study about 90% of those with gestational D (FInnish women) did not develop diabetes during the next 6 years)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16505514

I think your doc is right to monitor things . Keep an eye with occasional readings go back to him if they go up higher and certainly go back if the urination/drinking increases and if you start to loose weight.
 
how common is pre-diabetes in slim people? i know type 2 is normally related to weight. No family history of diabetes only my dad had pancreatic cancer but i don't think he was diabetic.
 
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